Culture Shocked
by Assemble-the-Avengers
Summary: "I know guilt. But you shouldn't blame yourself for his death." "What do you know about guilt?" Both blamed themselves for the brothers they lost and both found themselves lost in the ever changing world they found themselves thrust into. Both possessed the ability to help each other. The question is whether or not she will let him. SPOILERS FOR AOU.
1. Chapter 1

**I wrote this after seeing Age of Ultron. So...** ** _SPOILERS_** **. Enjoy.**

They looked for Bucky between missions as the Avengers, (Rogers, Romanoff, Maximoff, Wilson, Rhodes and sometimes Vision made up the new team). But it was only Rogers, Romanoff and Wilson who carried on searching for the man who'd been MIA for a long while now. Wanda had started joining them now, per Steve's suggestion. After she had agreed to join the search party, she had asked for details on the man she had heard very little of. Wilson had filled her in.

Sam, Steve and Natasha very quickly learned that when Wanda slept, she dreamt. She tended to dream of her brother for the most part as far as anyone could tell. With her nightmares, usually came the red glow in her eyes and tendrils of red floating from her hands. Steve always sent Natasha out when that happened because the red head's eyes would glaze over and she would shut down all over again, undoubtedly reliving the memories that glow of red had caused.

They were flying home from Cuba, they'd been following a lead on Bucky. Wanda had completely sapped herself of all strength in her attempt to broadcast warnings to the civilians of the town in which they'd ended up fighting some HYRA agents who'd been looking for the Winter Soldier as well. Sam had had to fly her back to the Quinjet. Her eyes were half lidded and she was muttering nonsensically in Russian. Yet she refused to sleep. Sam had laid her limp body down on the cot in the back and taken his place at the front of the plane, preparing it for takeoff. Natasha and Steve jogged into the plane a little while after Falcon and the Witch, Natasha's hand pressed to her shoulder where blood was too quickly seeping through her fingers and Steve's eyes rimmed by dark, almost black, circles.

"Wilson," Steve called, voice bordering on gravelly. "Get us in the air. Head for Palhaza." That had been the place the freighter Bucky had boarded was headed for.

"Aye, aye Captain." Sam muttered back, slightly mockingly. Steve chuckled and spared the Maximoff girl a worried look as her face screwed up in what looked like borderline pain. Her eyes were squeezed shut but he knew, based on her glowing red finger tips, that her eyes would be flashing as well.

"Nat," Steve called, jarring the redheaded Russian out of her blood loss haze.

"Hey, Rogers," she drawled, tipping her head to get her hair out of her eyes. The sharp movement of her head seemed to throw her off her already fragile balance and Steve lunged forward, arm around the woman's waist to prevent her from collapsing. "Don't need a mother hen, Cap. Need stitches." She grunted as he eased her onto the floor. Steve just sighed and grabbed her wrist, pulling her hand away from the wound in her shoulder.

"Damn," he breathed out, replacing her hand and pressing it more firmly against the deep gash. She hissed then fixed the Captain with a raised eyebrow. "Don't say it." He warned. She chuckled. "I hold firmly to the belief that that should no longer be held over my head. It was one time."

"One times all it takes Steve." She smirked, tipping her head back against the wall as she felt the plane lift into the air. The Captain immediately started rifling through the first aid drawers in the metal wall of the plane, pulling out the various things and setting them on the ground next to Natasha's leg. He then shifted from crouching back on his heels to his knees and reached forward to drag the zipped of her suit down to her waist. "You needed only to ask Cap, no need to be so presumptuous." She half-smiled at him. Steve rolled his eyes and slid his hand over her shoulders and down her arms to peel the sleeves of her suit off. Natasha exhaled sharply as the fabric pulled at the gash in her shoulder and let her eyes fall closed in slight resignation.

Her eyes flew open instantly when she heard the rustling of the cot across the Quinjet and she stiffened. Steve's hand fell onto her leather clad leg and he looked back over his shoulder at Wanda who was swaying where she sat on the edge of the cot.

"You alright there Maximoff?" he asked cautiously. Her eyes blinked open and were blissfully blue as opposed to the red that would have sent Natasha into lock down.

"I can heal her." She muttered in her heavily accented voice. Steve's hand tightened on Natasha's thigh when she jerked a little.

"How?" Steve hedged, turning his body a little more. He, in opposition to Natasha, had long since forgiven the girl for her manipulation of the team. She'd been under other orders. How could he hold her accountable when he didn't hold Bucky responsible?

Wanda raised her hand in answer, red coloring the air around her fingers. Natasha's nails were digging into his wrist now.

"I can do many things," she said shortly. Steve held up one finger to her and twisted again to fully face Natasha.

"Natasha,"

"No," she snarled with such fury that her accent bled into her voice. "I don't want the Witch anywhere near me,"

"Nat, that's not fair." Steve chastised, lowering his voice though he knew Wanda could hear both of them just fine. "You may not like her, and you don't have to trust her, but trust me. You _will_ bleed out if somebody doesn't do something soon. And I don't know if stitches will even hold." He said, mostly to himself as he peered intently at the gaping gash splitting her shoulder. "But," he steeled himself and forced an unaffected expression that he knew the assassin saw right through. "I can always just use the artificial clot and we can turn around, head back to base, hope it holds until then and hope Bucky's trail doesn't go cold before we get back in the air." He stood, already making to call to Sam to turn the plane around. Natasha's nails cut into the skin of his palm suddenly and he stopped, looking down at her with an arched eyebrow.

"Fine." She growled as Steve crouched back down, twisting his hand in hers and squeezing lightly.

"Maximoff," he called. She stood and wavered on her feet, nearly collapsing before she caught herself on the wall. "Whoa there." He cautioned, stretching his palm out to her.

"I'm fine." She responded shortly and straightened her posture before walking over to the soldier and the spy, dropping down to one knee. Steve felt Natasha's supposed-to-be-bone-breaking grip on his hand and countered it lightly. He opened his mouth to say something to her only to let his jaw hang as he literally watched her skin stitch itself back together without Wanda ever even touching her. The corners of Natasha's eyes tightened but other than that she showed no sign of the pain she must have been feeling. The moment the last shred of skin closed over the wound, Wanda's hands fell and she collapsed sideways. Steve released Natasha's hand and caught the telekinetic girl across his lap, her tiny body swallowed up by his hulking arm. Natasha inspected her shoulder with vague curiosity and arched both eyebrows at the utter lack of scar where there had, minutes before, been a gaping gash in her arm. Other than being slightly lightheaded from the blood loss, and the blood caked on her arm, there was no sign that there had ever been anything there.

"You good?"

Natasha nodded once.

"Eat something, you lost a lot of blood." Steve ordered as he stood with little effort, still holding the small Maximoff girl in his arms. Natasha flipped him a slightly mocking salute and he rolled his eyes at her, turning and lying Wanda down on the cot. Before he could pull his arms out from under her, her hand caught the neckline of his uniform.

"Pietro, ostavat'sya. Izvinite, izvinite, izvinite," she mumbled, eyes squeezing shut even tighter. The Captain looked questioningly at Natasha over his shoulder.

"She's apologizing." Natasha offered up simply, eyeing the woman cautiously and taking a step backwards at the hue of her hands.

"Head up to the cockpit and see if Sam needs a hand." Steve said lowly as Wanda's fingers heated up against his neck. She bristled a little at the order but looked again at Wanda and turned to obey with a protein bar in her hand. Steve sighed and looked down at the brunette, sitting down on the edge of the cot, her still cradled in his arms. He glanced around the plane and then back down at Wanda with no idea of what to do for her. He wanted to wake her up. That's what he would've wanted done for him. But he didn't know how she'd react if woken so suddenly. So he waited.

It took her barely five minutes to wake herself up and when she did, Steve wound up blasted into the wall to their left.

"Steve, you alright back there?" Sam called. Steve grunted in response and pushed himself up on his forearms, turning his head to look at the wide eyed Russian girl who stood a few feet away from him.

"We're fine." Steve called back, voice a little rougher than it'd been before.

"I'm sorry, I didn't-"

"I know," Steve gave her a half-smile and pushed to his feet. He cocked his head and picked at his gloves, looking up at Wanda through his blonde eyelashes. "You know," he started conversationally. "You're brother," anger flashed in her eyes. "What happened to him, wasn't your fault. He sacrificed himself for one of our own. No more honorable way to go. Hey," he called when she looked away. "I know guilt. But you shouldn't blame yourself for his death when he made his choice to protect Barton and the child."

"What do you know about guilt?" she hissed in her thick accent, her arms crossed defensively and she leaned away from the captain. One side of Steve's mouth twitched up sadly.

"Bucky, the man we're looking for?" he began. Wanda nodded sharply. "He's my best friend. He died on my watch, following me into battle. Only, he didn't die. He was captured by HYDRA and brainwashed, turned into a monster, and I didn't save him. My friend, Abraham Erskine, died for his experimentation on me. My…girl, Peggy? I promised her a dance," he smiled a full smile at that. It faded quickly. "I died before I could follow through, broke her heart as far as she tells me when she isn't lucid." He chuckled darkly then looked up at Wanda who had fallen silent and solemn faced. "I'm no stranger to guilt." He grinned. Wanda frowned at him and dropped hard onto the cot when her head spun again. "You really wiped yourself out didn't you?" he chuckled, leaning back against the wall. Wanda fell listlessly onto her side. "You should get some sleep before we touch down in Hungary."

"That is a bad idea." Steve arched an eyebrow. "I will only hurt somebody."

"No you won't." Steve said fervently, moving closer to the cot. "I'll stay. You dream, and I'll wake you up. You need to sleep to build your strength back up." Wanda regarded him hesitantly. "I won't let you hurt anyone." He repeated. Wanda nodded and curled in on herself, falling asleep almost instantaneously.

Steve slid down the wall beside the cot, tilting his head back. And he stayed.

 **Review your thoughts, let me know if you liked it, hated it...**

 **ReVIEW FOR MORE:)**


	2. Chapter 2

**Here is Chapter Two.**

"Up and at 'em, Captain." Natasha called, kicking Steve's foot as she passed by his sprawled out form. He was still sitting up against the wall, head lolled to the side, body angled towards the cot Wanda had fallen asleep on. His eyes opened wide and instantly, head swiveling to take in his surroundings.

"Still 2015, Cap, you're good." Natasha half-smirked at him as she messed with the settings on her Widow's Bites. He gripped the hand Sam offered without looking at him, instead looking around the Quinjet. He slid around Sam, clapping his friend on the shoulder.

"Palhaza?" Steve questioned, bending and scooping his shield off the floor. Sam nodded once.

"We got reports of HYDRA guys on the ground, searching for him too, no luck far as we've heard." Steve nodded again and met Sam's eyes for half a second before scanning the room once again, ignoring the small knowing smirk he caught on Romanoff's face.

"Maximoff's cleaning up. Soon as she's done we're good to go." Natasha lifted her head a little as she spoke and Steve nodded in acknowledgment, glancing down to adjust the gloves he'd never taken off before he'd drifted off to sleep. His head shot up when he heard quiet footfalls off to his left.

"You good Maximoff?" Sam questioned, turning his head to look at her, hand hovering over the button that would open the back door of the plane. She nodded and, in one sharp motion, pulled the zipper of her red leather jacket up.

"Let's get 'em boys," Natasha smirked, swinging her leg over her newly replaced motorcycle and driving off the platform before it'd touched the ground.

"Sam, you hit the skies, see if you can see anything." Sam took to the air before Steve could even address Wanda who looked to be drawing patterns with the red light emanating from her fingers. Captain America led the way out of the plane, Wanda walking at his side. "You see if you can hear anything in any of the civilian's minds bout Buck- Barnes." He cleared his throat. "Metal arm, man in a mask, a chase, the usual." He said to her. Wanda nodded and her eyes almost immediately glowed red after that.

"Natasha, anything?" Steve asked, looking around at his surroundings.

"Give me a minute, Rogers. We've been on the ground, what, three seconds?" she replied, voice crackling in his ear.

"Wilson?"

"I second Romanoff's statement." He responded. Steve exhaled a little sharply.

"This time will be different, I can feel it." Natasha added quietly. Steve didn't reply to that, only glanced sideways at the Scarlet Witch beside him who looked utterly focused and lost in her own world, eyes flitting back and forth, seemingly as she picked through people's minds for any trace of Bucky. Wanda shoulders hunched a little bit and her eyes cleared as she focused on Steve. Hope sparked in his blue eyes, but died quickly at the shake of the Witch's head.

"Maximoff's got nothing, not unusual, so keep both eyes open." Steve said into the comm., nodding for Wanda to follow him. He said the same things every time, but nobody dared tell him not too. It made him feel like he had some control over the situation, over whether or not they found his best friend.

Natasha swerved around fire hydrants, people, bikes and carts full of food making her way to the first run down motel she'd found online during their flight. She knew Barnes's patterns, hell he'd taught them to her when he'd trained her all those years ago.

She drove up to the motel, skidding to a stop just outside the wall of the building, hopping off the bike and raising her hand to the comm. in her ear.

"Entering Location One, keep you posted."

"Copy that," Sam and Steve said simultaneously.

Natasha sauntered up to the counter, planting her forearms on it and leaning into the man at the counters personal space.

"Sziasztok, szép." She drawled, blinking up at him through her red curls.

 _Hey there, handsome._

"Hungarian? Romanoff speaks Hungarian too, man?" she heard Sam protest in her ear.

"Why do you think she's doing the investigating?" Steve laughed in reply.

"Miben segíthetek, kissasszony…?" he stuttered in reply, shifting nervously and running his hand through his thin and disheveled hair.

 _How can I help you, miss…?_

"Kissasszony Romanova," she smiled.

"Orosz," he realized, eyes widening a little. "Akcentusával nagyon jó."

 _Russian. Your accent is very good._

"Koszonom." Natasha smiled prettily. "Szükségem van a vendég rekordokat az elmúlt huszonnégy órában." She said in a more businesslike tone. The man looked a little confused by the sudden shift in conversation.

 _I need all of your guest records from the last twenty four hours._

"Nem tudok adni…"

 _I can't give you…_

"Tudod, és így lesz. Egyébként van néhány nagyon erős barátok kívül , akik boldogok lennénk , hogy meggyőzzem." She smiled as she gestured outside.

 _You can and you will. Otherwise I have some very powerful friends waiting outside who'd be more than happy to help me convince you._

The man swallowed thickly and looked around nervously before turning around and pulling open a metal drawer, flipping through some files and handing Natasha one of them when he faced her again.

"Köszönjük az együttműködést." She smirked at him, spinning on her heel and walking back out the door she'd come through. "Got the files," she muttered to her teammates.

"Damn, Romanoff. What languages don't you speak?" Wilson whistled lowly.

"Focus, guys." Steve chimed in. "What's your status?"

"Looking through the files now. Wilson?" Natasha questioned pulling one of her gloves off with her teeth as she thumbed through the records.

"Still nothing, man. Not a trace." Sam sighed. They both heard Steve's shuddery sigh on the other end of their comm. link.

"Doesn't mean he's not here, keep looking. Wanda's still got an ear to the ground over on our end. If he is anywhere around Palhaza, we'll find him." The captain stated assuredly.

"Don't doubt it," Sam replied, because he didn't. If Barnes was in _Hungary_ they'd find him. How could they not. They had the man's best friend, the superspy, a witch and a flying man who would all search the country top to bottom.

Natasha was reading through each name on the directory, looking through it for any of her old trainer's usual aliases. She hadn't found any so far. She'd almost reached the end of the list when the name "Charles Gacy" caught her eye. He'd used that one before. On one of their training missions before her Red Room graduation.

"I found him," she whispered to the team. She knew he knew they were looking for him but now he was playing with _her._ She hadn't expected that.

" _What,"_ Steve snapped. And she could already picture him stopping, going dead still, ramrod straight, finger pressed against the device in his ear, shield at his side.

"At least, I think I did. He might've already left but a Charles Gacy checked in just over seven hours ago."

"What makes you so sure its him?" Sam asked.

"I'm sure," Natasha replied.

"Where are you?" Steve asked, the hope in his voice was starting to feel like it was physically constricting Natasha's lungs. She should've scoped the room first, made sure he was still there before telling Rogers. Too late now.

"Aranybanya down by the Basilica."

"On our way," Steve's voice was curt and _all_ what Natasha called his captain voice. She sighed and dropped her hand away from her ear, slipping her glove back on and flipping the file closed.

"No idea what was just said there, following you, Cap." Sam chimed in. Natasha ducked back into the motel and gave the same man a sultry smirk, sliding the file across the counter into his hands.

"Tudnom kell, hogy mi terem Charles Gacy van." She told him.

 _I need to know what room Charles Gacy is in._

The man just looked at her with slight fear and shook his head.

"Nem tudok adni neked, hogy." He looked as though he was about to stomp his foot in frustration.

 _I can't give you that._

At that moment, the door opened revealing Captain America, in all his glory, Falcon with his wide wingspan and Scarlet Witch looking scary as ever with her halo of red light.

"Good timing, boys." Natasha drawled. "Mit mondott?" she smirked at the man who looked to be shaking in his boots. He stayed frozen for a moment then moved faster than Natasha had seen anyone move in a while. (Save for maybe Pietro but how was that a fair comparison?)

"Szoba harmincnyolc."

"Koszonom." Natasha smiled and waved him away. She turned while he scurried away and addressed the rest of her teammates standing in the doorway. "Room thirty eight." Steve adjusted his grip on his shield and bolted for the hallway that had 1-40 painted on the wall. The others followed at his heels, nearly running into him when he skidded to a stop in front of the thirty eighth room. He paused for half a second before slamming his shield down on the door handle and kicking the room open. Natasha knew before they'd stepped into the room that he wouldn't be there.

Steve knew Bucky better but she knew the Winter Soldier better than anyone and that was more the man they were dealing with right now.

"Rogers, man." Sam tried, eyes rolling towards the sky and bottom lip rolling between his teeth when Steve's fist clenched in barely there warning for everyone to just shut the hell up. He _had_ been there. That much was obvious, if not by the disturbing cleanliness of the room, then it was sure as hell obvious by the two words crudely carved into the wall.

Steve looked at Natasha for a translation of the Russian words in the drywall but flinched when Wanda's voice rang out in the dead silence.

"' _Stop Looking'"_ she read in an accent far thicker than Natasha's.

Steve inched closer to the wall, eyes pinned on the two words he couldn't read. As Natasha looked away from the heaving shoulders of the broken man in front of her, she noticed Wanda was staring straight at the back of his head, eyebrows furrowed and she noticed Wanda flinch a moment before Steve's fist went through the wall, between the two words. Sam let out a heavy sigh and dropped his gaze to the floor.

The shield hit the ground with a loud and echoing clatter as Steve brought both of his hands up, leaning his forehead against the wall between them as he fought to even out his breathing. The room and its occupants were drowning in dead silence that was broken only by the Captain's breathing.

"Steve, man, we gotta go." Sam took a hesitant step forward. It was then that Steve heard the incoming sirens. The hotel manager must have called them in. "I'll take Maximoff, you get Rogers out on the bike?" Sam looked at Natasha who nodded slowly, walking forward and wrapping her arm a quarter of the way around Steve's bicep, pulling gently enough that he probably didn't even feel it.

Sam nodded to Wanda and once she'd taken it, kicked out the glass from the sliding door, scooping the dark haired girl up like she weighed nothing, taking to the sky before Natasha had even gotten Steve to budge an inch.

"Steve, time to go." She murmured softly. He nodded without taking his eyes off of the Cyrillic, picked up his shield without doing so either. Natasha pulled on his arm again and when he turned, broke into a run that he kept pace with. Natasha swung her leg over the bike, watching Steve climb on behind her over her shoulder, hands resting lightly on her hips. They reached the Quinjet only minutes after Sam and Wanda, driving right onto the plane as the door already started to close.

"Should I tell Stark the dinner's off?" Sam asked when Natasha walked up behind him in the cockpit. Tony had taken to calling the weekly team dinners, family dinners. No one had bothered to correct him. Natasha didn't answer him, only glanced back at Steve over her shoulder and sank down into the co pilot seat beside Wilson.

In the cabin, Steve had sat down on the floor, one knee bent in front of him, the arm that wasn't propped up on his bent leg was spinning his shield on the floor. He only looked up when Wanda emerged from the bathroom and wordlessly sat down beside him, similarly to how he'd done for her the day before. Other than that, he remained motionless and silent for the duration of the flight back to New York.

The only thought Wanda could form as she stayed seated by the Captain was that he looked tired. Not just the kind of tired that came with not getting enough sleep the night before. The kind of tired that accompanied crushing disappointment, heart break, and the gut wrenching feeling of someone's absence that she knew all too these last few weeks. But she said nothing. And did her best to stay out of his head. Just sat next to him, quietly, as he stared at his hand that rested atop his knee. Sam landed the Quinjet on the roof of Stark's tower, (The Avengers Tower, which had needed to be remodeled yet again). Wanda started upright when Steve suddenly stood up off the floor, moving for the first time since they'd boarded the jet eleven hours ago. He picked up his shield, tossing it in the air and catching it with the magnetic gauntlet on his wrist. He stretched the other arm out to the Maximoff girl, pulling her to her feet.

The four of them exited the plane together, disappearing into their various rooms to change before joining the others.

Rogers was the last to join his friends, dressed in a white Henley and blue leather jacket, hands buried deep in his coat pockets.

"Cap, my man!" Tony called, clapping his hands together.

"Stark," Steve tipped his head and half-smiled at his friend.

"Steve," Pepper grinned, standing off the couch and crossing the common room to where Steve stood, surveying the people in the room.

"Ma'am," he greeted, hand on her back as she stretched up and kissed his cheek.

"Good to see you, Steve."

"Hands off my Pepper!" Tony called out. Steve shook his head and dropped his hand away from Pepper's back. Most of them were already there.

Wanda was there, in a black dress, high heeled boots and that red necklace she never seemed to take off, leaning against one of the metal pillars. Rhodey and Maria were sitting on either side of one of the couches. Sam was seated on the arm of the couch closest to Hill. Clint was there too, like he was every couple of weeks, seated on the ground in front of the love seat Natasha was sitting in. Steve nodded his head in greeting at everyone else in turn before crossing his arms and leaning back against the wall, effectively distancing himself from the conversations going on around him.

No Banner. That wasn't unusual. Though that didn't change the fact that seeing Natasha look around for him every time the elevator pinged with someone else's arrival sent a pang of hurt through his chest. In addition to the hurt, there was anger. Anger that Banner had left Natasha high and dry with no explanation. She deserved more than that. He'd thought Banner had understood that. He sighed when Natasha's head shot up at the ding of the elevator. Barton's face darkened a little and he glanced up at Natasha with an expression that mirrored how Steve felt. Thor stomped out of the elevator and Natasha settled back into her chair, smiling a slightly sad smile at the god of thunder. A genuine smile broke out across the captain's face when Thor smirked at all of his friends, throwing his hammer in the air and catching it in the opposite hand. Steve pushed off of the wall and made his way across the floor to his friend, grasping the hand Thor offered him and clapping the god on the shoulder.

"How's Asgard?" Steve asked, crossing his arms back over his chest.

"Asgard is safe. For the time being." Thor conceded. "How fairs the search for your missing friend?" he asked as quietly as the bass beat of his voice would allow. Steve's jaw clenched and Thor nodded understandingly. "You will find him. I have no doubt."

"That makes one of us." Steve flashed a heart wrenchingly sad half-smile at his friend. Thor had tried, at first, to help. He'd had Heimdall look for Bucky, but every time he reached Steve with a location, Bucky was already gone.

"Dinner's ready! Everyone to the table!" Pepper yelled out over the clamor of the four separate conversations happening. Nobody hesitated when Pepper ordered them around. Nobody dared. Especially when she spent the majority of the day cooking a meal for a god, a super soldier, a witch, two birds, an enhanced assassin, a shield agent and two iron men.

They all sat down around the conference table they had to use as their dinner table and all automatically joined hands, looking expectantly at Steve. They'd mocked him the first time he'd taken the hands of the two people on either side of him but as soon as they'd seen how much it really meant to him, they'd participated without complaint and it became routine. Steve looked around at them, and a smile twitched at his mouth as he took Natasha and Wanda's hands, bowing his head down towards the table. He said a few quick sentences, thanking God for the opportunity they all had to eat together, as he always did. The moment he finished up the prayer, everyone else chorused his _Amen_ and dug into the food Pepper had prepared.

Everybody always offered to help. To come earlier and make dinner with her, but she always refused. She refused to let Tony hire caterers either because, according to her, _that wasn't how family dinners worked._

But she did make them wash the dishes. It was always entertaining and she usually sat back on one of the counters, sipping a glass of wine as the oversized dysfunctional family did their best to clean up in a somewhat organized fashion.

It took two dinners for them to realize they didn't need to make several hundred trips to clear the plates and cups and silverware from the table when they had Wanda Maximoff. After that, it became her job to stand in the archway between the kitchen and dining room, voodooing the dishes onto the counter. It took halfway through the first dinner for Thor to be banned from touching the glassware. He was only allowed to handle the silverware. Tony more 'supervised' then helped, hovering above everybody in his suit, snapping at everybody to work faster. Sometimes he'd whistle _Hi Ho, Hi Ho, it's off to work we go_ until Natasha threw a knife at him. Steve and Rhodey were the main dishwashers while Sam and Clint dried them. Though more often than not, they wound up whipping each other with the wet towels like children and seeing who could hold out the longest. Maria and Natasha put the dishes away, (and usually wound up having to re-dry the dishes that Sam and Clint had neglected).

The nine of them barely fit in the kitchen and every night there was at least one plate broken.

The moment they were done, they all retreated into the common room, sitting down on couches and the floor while Tony had the legion bring them alcohol. The rest of them had long since stopped protesting that that was not the proper use of the Iron Legion because really, it was much easier than having to find a way to transport the amount of alcohol needed to supply the Avengers.

"I propose a game!" Tony announced, raising his cup of scotch a little too forcefully.

"Ohh no." Rhodey shook his head. "Last time we played a game, you threw up on my shirt and nearly jumped out the window with a fire extinguisher yelling at Thor that anything he could do you could do better." Rhodey glared at his best friend.

"Lighten up. Who's in?" Tony grinned. Wanda had shrank back against the pillar, nearly blending into the shadows save for her red necklace glinting in the fluorescents. Natasha chuckled, shaking her head and raising her hand, kneeing Clint when he stayed still, snickering into the beer he was already drinking. His hand slowly raised off the cushion of the couch it was resting on.

"Big Bird?" Tony cocked his head at Sam.

"Naw, man. I'm gonna sit this one out. Learned my lesson the first time around."

"I'm with Wilson on that one." Maria smirked, taking the already uncapped beer Sam offered her.

"Thor? Rogers? Come one, you _can't_ lose. It's a win win for you." Tony pouted. Thor nodded once, smirking all the while.

"I'm out." Rhodey chorused. "Gotta get going anyway." He grinned.

"Party pooper!" Tony yelled as his friend got to his feet.

"I have an actual job. Unlike you freelancers." Rhodey scoffed. Tony ignored him and waved his hand dismissively after his friend as he disappeared behind the elevator doors.

"I'm gonna sit this one out, Stark." Steve finally responded, arms crossed. Pepper just laughed at them all in exasperation.

"It's not even a drinking game, Tony." Pepper frowned. "They can't get drunk." Tony ignored her.

"Katniss," Tony looked at Clint seriously, as aside from himself, he was the only one who could get drunk. "May the odds be ever in our favor." He took a large drink of his scotch, then refilled his cup as well as Natasha's, Thor's and Clint's.

"Ladies first," Tony hummed, tilting his glass towards Natasha. She swirled her glass thoughtfully, the ice clinking musically against the side of the cup.

"Never have I ever…" she trailed off. Pepper groaned. Her boyfriend always lost this one. "Slept with someone I loved." She arched an eyebrow dangerously and everyone fell dead silent.

"Damn Romanoff. That dark, right off the bat. You ain't messin' around." Sam muttered.

"Never do," She winked at him. Steve just huffed a half-hearted laugh and glanced down at the coffee table.

Tony and Clint both tipped their drink into their mouths.

"Really?" Natasha raised a disbelieving eyebrow at the god of thunder. Thor nodded. "Then you're up." Thor looked thoughtful for a minute before he looked at each of them with an utterly evil glint in his eye.

"Never have I ever used one of those portable talking devices." Everybody leveled the god with a hateful glare and drank from their individual cups.

"You're up Stark," Natasha nodded to him. Maria just chuckled and shook her head, glancing down at the floor. Sam smirked and leaned back, stretching his arm out along the back of the couch behind Maria. Pepper just sighed and tucked her legs under her, swirling her wine in her cup. Steve hadn't moved since they'd begun their game.

"Never have I ever jumped off a building." Tony said without hesitation, as if he'd had that one planned out since the beginning. Clint rolled his eyes and drank from his glass again, glaring at Natasha when she didn't.

"I was pushed." She protested, glaring.

"I seem to recall you saying the very opposite at the time." He grinned, nodding when she took a drink anyway.

"Hey!" Tony protested pointing at Thor accusingly.

"I do not jump, I fly." Thor thundered, head raising a little self righteously.

"Nuh uh man," Sam protested shaking his finger at him.

"Very well," Thor laughed, raising his oversized glass to his mouth. The majority of the people in the room chuckled and out of the corner of his eye, Steve caught a flash of Wanda Maximoff's pale skin as she turned and disappeared into the darkness of the hallway. Steve glanced around at his friends, who were all focused on the two out of the four game players who were well on their way to getting themselves drunk. He stood from his chair and ducked out of the room, looking around the window surrounded landing for Wanda. It didn't take him long to notice the silhouette of her tiny frame against the city light lit window.

"Hey," he called out quietly, even still his voice echoed around them.

"I am fine," she said firmly. It was hard to pick out the barely there tremble in her voice through her accent but he knew it was there.

"No you're not." He smirked sadly, knowingly when she glanced over her shoulder at him. Her attention returned almost immediately to the city spanning out around them. Steve took a few steps closer to the woman and kept his arms crossed over his chest. They stood like that, dead silent for ten minutes. The silence was oddly calming and Steve slowly saw the red glow fade from her finger tips moments before she finally spoke.

"Those men," she began. "Sitting in that room, drinking, laughing, _living_." She scowled, turning her intense gaze upwards towards the Captain. "They do not deserve that. My brother, he died to save one of them, and at the hands of the creation of another. He deserves that. And he is not _here."_ That last, louder word echoed, ricocheting off the metal walls. "He does not get to drink, or to laugh or to live, because he is dead while they live on." She was furious, and Steve kept one eye one her hands while still watching the streets below.

"It's not fair," Steve agreed. The woman's frame stiffened. "His life shouldn't have had to end for theirs to continue." He turned his body towards her and tilted his head to better look her in the eye. "It isn't fair." He repeated.

"Why are you not drinking with them?" she asked instead of responding to him.

"Can't get drunk." He laughed humorlessly. Wanda cocked her head and regarded him curiously before a barely there, but there all the same, smile twisted her lips.

"Neither could Pietro."

 **Please review if you would like me to keep going. Constructive criticism welcome as well:)**


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